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A PRINCE AMONG STONES

Name: A PRINCE AMONG STONES
Author: Rupert Loewenstein
ISBN: 978-1-62040-034-0

THAT BUSINESS WITH THE ROLLING STONES AND OTHER ADVENTURES

by Rupert Loewenstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2013

Stones compleatists will want to shelve this alongside the collected works of Spanish Tony, but ordinary civilians won’t get...

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Languid memoir by the German-British noble who built a fortune for Mick Jagger and company, among other pop icons.

The prince assures us on several occasions that he didn’t come to the Rolling Stones as a fan. He doesn’t like rock ’n’ roll; though, as the scion of a dynasty displaced by history, he has a certain fascination with the power of the band, and especially Jagger, to hold an audience spellbound in the way that a certain Hitler fellow did in the Germany of yore. “I never played a Stones track by choice,” he writes. Yet, noblesse oblige; toward the end of the 1960s, once they’d amassed enough money—if only on paper—Britain’s rock stars began to hobnob with the upper crust, a group that returned the favor by advising them on how to spend their fortunes. In the case of Loewenstein, well known as a capable stockbroker and financial adviser, part of his counsel involved wresting the band from the talons of American promoter Allen Klein, whereupon the millions began to flow. Fans of the Glimmer Twins won’t learn much about the two here, though Jagger won’t like hearing that the prince believes that Keith Richards is the brains in the band. Loewenstein is a touch vague on the exact workings of building a rock-star fortune (he worked with Pink Floyd, Terence Trent D’Arby and other artists besides the Stones), which makes for good accounting but not terribly exciting storytelling. He is better when he turns his gaze elsewhere and goes into full gossip mode, as when he writes of another misplaced noble and his wife: “The Wrangells were often in Europe and by and large lunched on dry martinis and the odd olive.”

Stones compleatists will want to shelve this alongside the collected works of Spanish Tony, but ordinary civilians won’t get a lot from the prince’s pages.

Pub Date: March 5, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-62040-034-0

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Review Posted Online: Dec. 1, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2012

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.